Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson has put together a playlist of some of his favorite Christmas recordings. Questlove is co-founder of The Roots, which is among other things, is the house band for The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Also, roots and rockabilly musician JD McPherson plays some of his own Christmas tunes. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices NPR Privacy Policy
On the Ted radio hour, linguist Ann Curzan says she gets a lot of complaints about people using the pronoun they to refer to one person.
I sometimes get into arguments with people where they will say to me, but it can't be singular.
And I will say, but it is the history behind words causing a lot of debate.
That's on the Ted radio hour from NPR.
This is FRESH AIR.
I'm Terry Gross.
We're going to celebrate Christmas by listening back to Questlove playing songs from the Christmas Christmas playlist he put together for us last year.
In addition to his many credits, Questlove is perhaps one of the most famous, popular and in demand DJ's.
He even djed a party for Obama.
Last year, Questlove won an Oscar for his documentary Summer of Soul, in which he featured filmed performances from the overlooked 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, which was nicknamed the Black Woodstock, and featured performers like Stevie Wonder, Sly and the Family Stone, Gladys Knight and the Pips, Nina Simone and Mahalia Jackson.
Summer of Soul won a Grammy for best music film in 2021.
Kweslov was the music director for the Oscar ceremony.
He co founded the band the Roots, which, among other things, is the house band for the Tonight show with Jimmy Fallon.
He was a producer of the original cast recording of Hamilton.
He's also written several books related to music.
Questlove, welcome back to FRESH AIR.
Thanks so much for doing this and choosing music for us.
Why don't we start with a song that you selected?
And this is a song by Dram and his mother, who he calls big baby mom.
And it's Silver Bells.